Background: Videos have been shown to be beneficial in helping teachers reflect on their teaching practice and in contributing to their professional development, as they allow teachers and their mentors and colleagues to analyse teaching from different perspectives. Purpose: This study investigated the perceptions and experiences of some student teachers and their supervisors who used a video application during one practicum period. Student teachers recorded each other’s lessons with the video app, and supervisors oversaw student teachers online, via a portal. The study aimed to explore how far the app constituted a useful tool for student teachers’ professional development and for the supervision of student teachers’ practice. Sample, design and method: The data were collected by gathering the experiences of 12 student teachers and 9 supervisors. Data included focus groups, interviews and video diaries. Analysis was undertaken using principles of content analysis and phenomenographic analysis such as thematising, coding and categorising. Results: Findings suggested that student teachers in general felt that the video app supported their self-reflection. The influence on their professional development may have been limited by factors including lack of guidance for individual and collaborative reflection. Using the video app as a supervisory tool was regarded as challenging in some ways, particularly because video clips taken out of context were unable to capture the classroom’s atmosphere, environment and culture. Conclusions: The study highlights that video excerpts in themselves do not provide a sufficient basis for lesson observation. However, the study’s results draw attention to the app’s potential for guiding individual and collaborative video-based reflection. Consideration should be given to the changes that video-elicited reflection encourages with respect to supervision and its effects on the roles of supervisor and student teacher.

This study aims to find out how student teachers’ meaning-oriented reflection can be enhanced with the help of video in a primary school teacher education programme. The study shows how student teachers (n = 10) and their supervisors (n = 9) followed the video-enhanced reflection procedure during one practicum period. The data were collected through focus group or individual interviews and audio recordings of supervisory discussions. Content and phenomenographic analysis were conducted. The results indicated that the reflection procedure was beneficial for the student teachers in their self- and peer reflection and in the supervisory process. Some supervisors lacked the necessary theoretical tools, and the student teachers did not reach the appropriate level of critical reflection in their discussions. The results suggest that to support deeper reflection, it is important to pay attention to the characteristics of the reflection procedures and the theoretical basis of supervision.

This study investigated the process of implementing professional development plans (PDPs) as a tool for teachers’ continuing professional learning in Finnish Lapland. The PDP model was developed through two cycles following a design-based research (DBR) approach. The data were collected by interviewing teachers and principals, and then analysed thematically. The results showed that factors affecting the PDP process related mainly to structural and strategical work in schools. The lack of clear guidelines and support from principals and colleagues, as well as the absence of discussions on school strategy and its meaning for teachers’ professional development, negatively affected the PDP process. As a result, schools’ strategic planning only vaguely guided individual PDP processes. The results suggest that, for the successful implementation of a PDP process, schools’ strategic planning should be more clearly integrated with teachers’ PDPs in order to enhance their personal professional development in meaningful ways.